April 24, 2026 09:25 AM UTC

It's Red vs. Red As Unaffiliated Voter Struggle Comes To Head

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Jesse Paul reports for the Colorado Sun, yesterday all four Republican members of Colorado’s congressional delegation filed a motion to intervene in the Colorado Republican Party’s emergency request to exclude unaffiliated voters from the rapidly-approaching June 30th primary election…and not in support:

U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert of Windsor, Jeff Crank of Colorado Springs, Jeff Hurd of Grand Junction, and Gabe Evans of Fort Lupton — along with the NRCC — said in a motion that preventing unaffiliated voters from casting ballots in Republican primaries this year “could cause chaos.”

“This targeted intervention is necessary to protect candidates’ and a national political committee’s concrete, partisan interests from imminent disruption,” the group wrote.

One might think that the “concrete partisan interests” of Republicans lie in the leaderless state party’s request to kick unaffiliated voters out of the process. But this time, especially for one particular Republican incumbent, dilution of the party faithful with a healthy portion of clear-headed unaffiliated voters is the order of the day:

Unaffiliated voters, who now make up a majority of the state’s active, registered electorate, have been able to cast ballots in either the state’s Democratic or Republican primaries since 2018.

Of the four Colorado Republicans in Congress, [Rep. Jeff] Hurd has the most to lose in the primary lawsuit. He’s the only one of the group facing a primary challenge this year.

Since Donald Trump and freshman GOP Rep. Jeff Hurd made nice following a month for Hurd in the MAGA doghouse, Hurd’s GOP primary opponent “Raging” Ron Hanks has less of a shot, but there’s no question that excluding unaffiliated voters from the upcoming primary would help Hanks’ odds. For the rest, what we have here, with the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) taking the same position, appears to be tacit acknowledgement that unaffiliated voters are good for the Republican primary process–and not just in the moral sense of fostering participation, but in the “concrete partisan interest” of fielding the most electable candidate in the general election.

“Preventing unaffiliated voters from participating in the Republican primary election will cause me irreparable harm that cannot be remedied after the election,” Hurd wrote in his request to intervene. [Pols emphasis]

Evans, Boebert, Crank and the NRCC said they would lose valuable data on unaffiliated voters if unaffiliateds aren’t allowed to participate in the rest of the state’s GOP primaries this year.

It’s an admission that speaks volumes about the growing disconnect between the MAGA-era Republican party and the mainstream electorate in Colorado, which is now over 50% unaffiliated. Led by former party chairman Dave Williams, in 2024 the state party openly sided with a slate of candidates who were not just ideologically out of the mainstream but laughably unqualified (here’s looking at you, Janak Joshi). Williams’ usurpation of the party apparatus to support his favored band of candidates failed to get either Williams or his fringe friends elected, but his faction of the party remains convinced that if only they could overcome the “RiNOs” in their midst, they would someday triumph.

Which is, of course, further evidence of their delusion. Lauren Boebert, who was happy to accept the Williams’ tainted endorsement two years ago, appears to have learned her lesson.

After the court ruled that Proposition 108’s 75% opt-out requirement was an undue burden, the supporters of kicking unaffiliated voters out of Republican primaries understandably felt vindicated. Now, like the proverbial dog who caught the car, Republicans need to think urgently about what this would mean for the party’s long-term viability in a blue state. There’s a reason why Democrats have no equivalent interest in excluding unaffiliated voters, and we expect to see it manifest in their primary results on June 30th.

If Republicans are determined to tell a majority of Colorado voters to pound sand, Democrats should rejoice.

And Republicans with an interest in the future trying desperately to hit the brakes are correct.